LanSchool Tech Console Install Guide · Technical Support |9 LanSchool Tech Console Install Guide...

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LanSchool Tech Console Install Guide

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© 1999 - 2016 Stoneware Inc. All rights reserved. LanSchool is a registered trademark of Stoneware Inc. All other company and product names are trademarks of their respective owners.

nSchool Tech Console Install Guide

Contents | 3

Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Important Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6About LanSchool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Product Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Supported Environments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Tech Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Report Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Contact Information. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Installing Tech Console and Report Server . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

Planning the Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11Tech Console Network Configuration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

IP-Subnets and VLANs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12LanSchool Port Usage . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12Configuring Tech Console for use with IP-Multicast or IP-Directed Broadcast . . . . . . . . . . . 13

Installing Tech Console on Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14To install Tech Console on a Windows computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

To install Tech Console on a Student computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15To install Report Server on a Windows computer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

Scripting or Mass Deploying Students via MSI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17Installing Tech Console in Secure Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

Password Secure Mode. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18Active Directory Secure Mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Uninstalling Tech Console from a Windows Computer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20Installing Tech Console on a Mac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

Manual Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22Automated Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

Uninstalling Tech Console on a Mac . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24Updating Tech Console and User Machines . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Updating the Tech Console . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25Update LanSchool on Selected Users . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Configuring Tech Console Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Tech Preferences. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27User Preferences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

Tech Console Security Monitoring . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Tech Console in a NAL environment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Wake-On-LAN Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34802.11 Wireless Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

Special Hardware Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Additional Utilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37


LanSchool Tech Cons

4 | Contents

ole Install Guide

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Preface

Thank you for selecting LanSchool Tech Console. Tech Console provides a central management view of the users and devices in your environment. It allows technical administrators and IT staff to gather hardware and software inventory, keep everything up-to-date, monitor security risks, provide efficient support to your teaching staff, save power and report on technology utilization.

This user guide explains how to use Tech Console. It was last updated on Feburary 21st, 2017.

Topics

Important Information

Installing Tech Console and Report Server

Technical Support


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6 | Preface

Important Information

This section contains important information about your LanSchool Product.

About LanSchoolSince 1986 LanSchool has delivered market-leading software that helps teachers, professors and trainers teach more effectively in a 21st century classroom. With the introduction of Tech Console, LanSchool will also provide IT and Tech Coordinators with the tools to help them accomplish their daily tasks.

Product DocumentationThe following documents form the LanSchool Tech Console documentation set:

• Tech Console Install Guide (tcinstall.pdf) — This document helps you to install the product.

• Tech Console User Guide (tcusers.pdf)— This document guides you how to use the product.

ool Tech Console Install Guide

Supported Environments | 7

Supported Environments

Tech ConsoleLanSchool Tech Console supports the following operating systems for the console or student:

• Windows XP-32

• Windows Vista-32/64

• Windows 7-32/64

• Windows 8-32/64

• Windows 10-32/64

• Mac OS X 10.7 or greater

Please note that Tech Console for the Mac will only run on Intel-based Mac hardware running OSX 10.7 or greater.

Tech Console is a stand-alone product designed to help IT and Technical staff with their daily tasks. However, Tech Console uses the same client software as LanSchool v8.0 and can be used to manage LanSchool v8.0 students and teachers.

Tech Console will discover previous versions of LanSchool, but to function properly, they must be updated to the 8.0 version. Fortunately, you can use the Tech Console to easily update earlier versions of LanSchool Mac and Windows teachers and students.

Listed below are the minimum requirements necessary to run Tech Console:

Processor

PCs: 166 MHz Intel® Pentium® processor or faster

Macs: 64-bit Intel-based Mac’s

RAM

- 128 MB for Windows XP

- 256 MB for Windows Vista/7/8/10

- 512 MB for Mac OS X

Report Server

Included with the LanSchool Tech Console is an additional install for the LanSchool Report Server. The Report Server retains the software and hardware inventory information scanned from Student machines. If it is installed in combination with LanSchool v8.0 Classroom Management software, inventory information from Teacher machines is also captured. This data capture allows you to record and analyze your technology utilization with the reports provided like Web Site Visits and application usage by Student or Computer.


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8 | Preface

The Report Server is a stand-alone install that includes a SQLite database and the ASP.NET web framework . It may be installed on the same machine as the Windows Tech Console software, but only one install of the Report Server should be implemented. Once installed, it “announces” its presence to all Tech Consoles available. It can be accessed by the Reports toolbar button on an individual Tech Console, or through a browser by its IP address.

The same Tech Console Processor and RAM requirements are necessary for the Report Server, although it is recommended to increase the RAM to at least 1G. The Report Server initially requires under 60MB of disk space to install, though additional space is needed as inventory is collected. The amount of disk space needed will vary depending on the number of machines in your environment, but the inventory data captured does not require significant space and the ongoing collection of web history data and application usage is very small.

The Report Server supports the following operating systems:

• Windows 7 64 bit

• Windows 8 64 bit

• Windows 10 64bit

• Windows Server 2012

• Windows Server 2016

Product and database backup is strongly recommended, though refreshed inventory information is gathered once a day. Backing up the Report Server will insure the protection of your historic usage data.

As the Report Server includes a web server, it should not be installed on a machine with any other database or web server. Some types of software, such as Skype*, behave similarly to a web server, and should therefore either be configured to listen on a different port if present on the same machine, or be removed from that device. At this time, the Report Server does not include dynamic port allocation and it “listens” on port 80 for broadcasts from local Tech Consoles.

Protocol stack

All computers running Tech Console, the Report Server, or the Student or Teacher software must be configured with TCP/IP running static or dynamic IP addresses. 802.11 wireless is supported, however enterprise class access points are recommended.


Technical Support | 9

Technical Support

Every effort has been made to design this software for ease of use and to be problem free. If problems are encountered, please contact Technical Support.

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 1-877-394-0443 (Toll Free USA), 1-260-492-2357 (International)

Hours: 8:00am to 6:30pm (Eastern Time)

Contact Information • Web: http://www.lenovosoftware.com/lanschool

• Email: [email protected]

• Phone: 1-888-473-9485 (Toll Free USA), 1-860-819-3774 (International)

• Fax: 1-866-596-2088 (USA Fax), 1-317-229-6320 (International Fax)

• Hours: 8:00am to 5:00pm (Mountain Time)

• Address:

Stoneware Inc.PO Box 3352Carmel, IN 46082USA


http://www.faronics.com

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10 | Installing Tech Console and Report Server

Installing Tech Console and Report Server

This chapter describes how to install LanSchool Tech Console v8.0 and the Report Server.

Topics

Planning the Installation

Tech Console Network Configuration

Installing Tech Console on Windows

Scripting or Mass Deploying Students via MSI

Installing Tech Console in Secure Mode

Uninstalling Tech Console from a Windows Computer

Installing Tech Console on a Mac

Uninstalling Tech Console on a Mac

Updating Tech Console and User Machines

Configuring Tech Console Preferences

Tech Console Security Monitoring

Tech Console in a NAL environment

Wake-On-LAN Support

802.11 Wireless Support

Additional Utilities


Planning the Installation | 11

Planning the Installation

Before installing Tech Console or the Report Server, review the following requirements and ensure your network and computers are running smoothly. Doing so will prevent problems during installation.

By taking a few minutes to plan out your installation, you should be able to install Tech Console on each computer very quickly. The Report Server takes several minutes longer as it is installing both a web server and a database, and it requires a reboot upon completion.

Consider these issues before beginning installation:

Determine your channel strategy

Tech Console is designed to work with as many as 16,000 different classrooms on the same network. It uses channels to communicate with Student (and Teacher) computers on the same channel.

Think of a Tech Console channel as a TV channel: All TVs tuned to a certain channel receive the same program. In the same way, a Tech Console configured to a certain channel will communicate and list Students on the same channel. If the Tech Console is configured to use channel “0” (zero) it will list all Students on that subnet.

Decide which computer will be the Report Server

You should only set up one Report Server. It will listen to any Tech Console installed in the same environment, and you may setup more than one Tech Console if you have multiple administrators providing support.

Configure a valid TCP/IP protocol stack for all student and teacher computers to be managed.

If the computers are using DHCP, then DHCP must be working properly. It is best if the teacher and student computers are all on the same IP subnet as the Tech Console. Tech Console will work with static IP addresses, but they are not required.

Use good networking hardware and software

If your classroom already experiences network errors, Tech Console will not perform correctly. If you are experiencing problems logging onto computers or copying files over the network, resolve these issues before installing the product.

Use an enterprise class access point

If you plan on using Tech Console over a wireless network, it is important to use an enterprise class access point. Generally, personal home network wireless access points that cost less than $100 are not robust enough to handle many connections. We recommend an access point in the $200-$300 range that will reliably handle Student connections.


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Tech Console Network Configuration

By default, LanSchool assumes that all devices will be on the same IP-subnet as the Tech Console. However, it is possible to configure it to function properly even when the devices reside on a different subnet (or even a separate segment) from the Tech Console.

IP-Subnets and VLANsIf the Tech Console is on a different IP-Subnet from the client computers (Students or Teachers if LanSchool v8.0 is installed), the default “IPBroadcast” UDP packets used by LanSchool will not be received by the clients, and that machine will not be displayed in the User List. Instead, you must configure the Tech Console software to use either IP-Multicast or IP-Directed Broadcast packets.

IP-Multicast supports the ability to have one device (the Tech Console) send a message to a set of recipients (Students) with special multicast addresses rather than a single device. IP-Directed Broadcasts are special addresses which (when properly formed) will traverse your network as a single directed UDP packet until the destination subnet is reached. Upon reaching the destination subnet, the router will then convert the packet into a standard UDP-Broadcast packet.

For either transport method to work, it is important to first verify that your network routers have support for that feature enabled. For IP-Directed Broadcast to work, your routers must also be configured to forward IP-Directed Broadcast packets (sometimes routers refer to these as “UDP Directed Broadcasts) and the address of these packets must be properly formed. You should contact your network administrator or refer to your hardware manufacturer's documentation for further information on your network device features and configuration.

LanSchool Port UsageTech Console’s original main port number was796 (or 0x31C hex). Starting with LanSchool 7.8, a high port is also leveraged, 11796 (or 0x2E14 hex) specifically for operating systems that require special privileges for communication with ports 1024 and lower (i.e. Android). LanSchool intentions are to eventually transition off of port 796 in favor of 11796, in 7.8 both ports are leveraged.

All non-status broadcast and multicast packets are sent to these ports (796, 11796). The source port for these packets is dynamic (sometimes referred to as ephemeral), meaning is it decided by TCP/IP at run time and cannot be specified. Generally it is in the range of 49152–65535. All LanSchool PC’s must allow data traffic on port 796 and 11796 to be received and should not attempt to curtail the transmittal of data on ephemeral sockets.

When LanSchool is performing an action on a specific Student (i.e. Remote Control, Thumbnail acquisition, Chat, etc.) the session oriented TCP packets are used. If the Student is a Fat Client machine, then the destination port will also be 796 or 11796. Again, the source port is dynamic.

Thin Clients are a special case. All UDP non-status broadcast and multicast packets are still sent to port 796 and 11796, but if the Student is a Thin Client Student, all TCP packets are sent to a dynamic port. The port for each Student is therefore unique. In this case, it is possible for a Teacher to send a TCP packet from a dynamic port to a dynamic port. However, in the Terminal Server environment, most TCP/IP traffic takes place within the same computer and is little more than inter-process communication.


Tech Console Network Configuration | 13

There is one additional UDP Status packet which is used to monitor LanSchool activity on the network. This traffic originates on port 1053 and is always sent to port 1053. It is either a broadcast or a multicast packet. LanSchool will function without Status Packets, but functionality is reduced (especially for a 1:1 environment where the enrollment data packets are used to detect when a Student prematurely leaves a class.)

Report Server Port Usage

The Report Server uses a number of ports to communicate between it, the database, and the Tech Consoles on that subnet. The primary port used is port 80, and no other third party applications should be installed on the same machine that also require this port to be available. The database and its related services use port 5432 for communication. The Ruby instances that wait for requests from the Tech Console include ports 7961, 7962, and 7963. All ports need to be available for complete functionality.

Configuring Tech Console for use with IP-Multicast or IP-Directed BroadcastAll Multicast packets are in the address range of 239.0.208.0 to 239.0.208.255. If IP-Multicast is the transport method chosen, then the router must be configured to forward data in this address range. If IP-Directed Broadcast is chosen, then it also must allow all traffic on port 796 (0x031C), 11796 (0x2E14), and port 1053 (0x41D) (either source or destination) to freely move between the subnets.

Tech Console provides a tool to assist you in determining the proper address to use in the IP Directed configuration. It is called DirBCastAddr.exe, and it's available in the install package. After unzipping the package, the tool can be found in the Utilities subfolder inside the Windows folder. Click on the file and then enter the IP address of any student machine on the target subnet, along with the subnet mask for that subnet. After both addresses have been entered, click on the “Calculate” button.

After configuring your network devices as described, configure the software to use that transport method.

1. Select Administer | Preferences from the console menu on the Tech Console computer.

2. On the Network tab, choose either IP-Multicast or IP-Directed Broadcast in the Data Transmission section.

3. If IP-Directed Broadcast is the preferred method, enter the IP address determined to be the correct one as shown by the DirBCastAddr.exe utility. If a specific Tech Console machine must communicate with Student machines in more than one subnet, add the addresses for the subsequent subnets.

Each Tech Console installation should be configured with only the subnets where Students with whom they interact with reside. So different Tech Console machines can and will have different subnet addresses listed in the Network configuration dialog in those environments with more than three subnets.

You can validate your implementation by launching the Tech Console, which should now automatically discover the Student machines on the other subnets. If UDP data is traversing the network properly, the Tech Console will be able to blank student screens. If the Tech Console can also view thumbnails of the students in the User List or remotely view student screens, then TCP data is also traversing the network properly. As Tech Console is a peer-to-peer application, both UDP and TCP traffic are required to be able to traverse the subnet for it to function fully.


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Installing Tech Console on Windows

Tech Console has two installation programs for Windows systems including XP or newer.

• TechConsole.msi

• ReportServer.exe

To install Tech Console you must run that .msi file on the desired machine. The Tech Console may be installed on the same device as a LanSchool v8.0 Teacher, though only one of the two programs may be launched and run at a time. It may also be installed on the same machine as a Report Server, although only a single Report Server should be installed to prevent conflicts in the data gathering. Neither the Tech Console nor the Report Server may be installed on a Student machine.

The install creates a C:\Program Files\LanSchool folder on each computer and stores all files locally. Once the installation is complete, a entry is added to the Start menu for the LanSchool Tech Console. Each time the program is started, the computer will display the Tech Console icon in the system tray at the bottom right corner of the computer screen and launch the console window. The icon is a small computer monitor with a green “circle of circles” included on it’s “screen”. Whenever the console window is closed (but not exited), you can right click the Tech Console icon to open the shortcut menu or left click to open the Tech Console program.

To install Tech Console on a Windows computer1. In My Computer, go to the LanSchool product download location and double-click

TechConsole.msi in the Windows folder.

2. Click Next.

3. Read the license agreement that appears, then click I Accept, then Next.

4. Select a Security Mode option if desired. Selecting either mode is not required, and is not recommended unless you have read the section “Installing Tech Console in Secure Mode” later in this guide. Checking the box to Enable a security mode allows you to then select one or both security modes. If Password Secure Mode is selected, then any Student or Teacher installs require that same password to subscribe to a channel. If Active Directory Secure Mode is selected, then the Tech Console must belong to an Active Directory group called “LanSchool Tech Console Admins” that must be created by your IT staff.

5. Click Install.

6. Click Finish to complete the installation.

7. If a LanSchool Teacher or Tech Console was previously installed on that device, then a reboot will be required in order to update the existing files.

To install Report Server on a Windows computer1. In My Computer, go to the Tech Console product download location and double-click the

ReportServer.exe in the Windows folder.

2. Click Next.

3. Read the license agreement that appears, then click I Accept, then Next.


Installing Tech Console on Windows | 15

4. Click Install.

5. Click Finish to complete the installation.

A reboot will be required in order to properly start the necessary services.

Once installed the next step is to confirm the report server is active. To accomplish this open the LanSchool Tech Console and click the Reports Icon in the toolbar or go directly to the Report server by typing in the IP Address of the machine running the report server into a browser.

If successful you should be presented with a Login screen

In order to login for the first time the default username = administrator and the default password = lanschool. Please insure you change this password after the inital login. You will then have options inside the report server to create additional login accounts for other users.

As noted earlier in the section “Tech Console Network Configuration”, there is one open port required for use by the Report Server. The install program will check at the beginning of the process to ensure that the necessary port is available. If any are in use, you will receive a message indicating that it is in use and the install will fail with that message.


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In order to troubleshoot this issue, we recommend running a utility that enumerates the ports and lists what application is currently controlling the port indicated in the install message. One tool we recommend is TCPView*, a free port viewer, that will quickly list the ports in use in your environment, and indicate what application is using the specified port.

If the application that is conflicting with the Report Server can be changed to listen on a different port, make that change, and re-run the install. If the application can be moved to another system, you can also reinstall successfully. If neither option is a possibility, then Report Server should be installed to a different machine.


Scripting or Mass Deploying Students via MSI | 17

Scripting or Mass Deploying Students via MSI

If you want to run student.msi from a script or another desktop management tool, there are command-line options to install LanSchool. Run msiexec.exe and each value should be set to a non-null value such as 1 to enable that feature. Msiexe.exe command-line parameters are found by running msiexec.exe. Msiexec.exe is a Microsoft program.

• CHANNEL=“X”Installs the Student with the desired channel X. “X” must be an integer number from 1 to 16000.

• ADVANCED_OPTIONSRequired to set any of the following advanced options.

• STEALTH_MODEAn advanced option, that when set to a non-null value, prevents the LanSchool icon from being shown on the Student computer.

• STUDENT_CHANGE_CHANNEL_MODEAn advanced option, that when set to a non-null value, allows the student to change channels.

• NO_KEYBOARD_MONITORING_MODEAn advanced option, that when set to a non-null value, ensures that student keystrokes will not be captured on the Student computer.

• NO_INTERNET_MONITORING_MODEAn advanced option, that when set to a non-null value, ensures that Internet history will not be captured on the Student computer.

• AD_SECURE_MODEWhen set to a non-null value, requires the Teacher or Student to enter Active Directory Security Mode. Only Teachers or Techs that are a member of the Domain User Group “LanSchool Teachers” or “LanSchool Tech Console Admins” will be able to manage those Students.

• SECURE_MODEWhen set to a non-null value, the Password Secure version of the product is installed that requires a password be entered on the teacher console to connect to Student computers, which must also be installed in this mode.

• PASSWORDA password is required when turning on Password Secure mode.

• PASSWORD_CONFIRMConfirmation of the password is required when turning on Password Secure mode.

• TASK_MANAGER_LIMITAn advanced option, that when set to a non-null value, allows a LanSchool Teacher to decide to limit or not limit Task Manager and Activity Monitor.

For example, if you want to silently install a Password Secure Mode Student that can change channels but starts on channel 3, with a password of “test”, your script should look like this:

Msiexec.exe /i “<path to student.msi>\student.msi" /qn ADVANCED_OPTIONS=1 SECURE_MODE=1 PASSWORD=test PASSWORD_CONFIRM=test CHANNEL=3 ENABLECHANNELSELECT=1


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Installing Tech Console in Secure Mode

Tech Console has the ability to install additional levels of security if desired. Two modes are available, Password Secure and Active Directory Secure, and one or both may be selected. If the option is not properly installed, however, a Tech Console will not be able to communicate on the desired channel and Student access will be unavailable.

Password Secure ModeThis mode requires techs to type in a password when the console is launched to see students on a particular channel. This feature adds an extra level of security to prevent unauthorized consoles from being used.

Installation Steps:

1. After double clicking on either the TechConsole.msi or Student.msi file, continue through the install as previously described. To install the password protected version, check the box to Enable a security mode.

2. Select Password Secure Mode.

3. Type in a password and re-enter it to confirm.

4. Repeat these steps for other Tech Console or Student installations.

Note: if LanSchool Classroom Management software is installed in the same environment, then Teachers must also be installed with this password. The password is required on the Teacher install so that if a teacher computer uses the “Become a Student” feature, it can still be secure.

When a tech launches the console or changes channels, they will be prompted for a password to view the students on that particular channel or group of channels.

To install the password protected version on Student using a script or Active Directory, refer to the section above, “Scripting or Mass Deploying Students via MSI”.

In order to use .adm or .admx templates with the secure version of the Student, you must login to the customer portal and generate a key that will go in the password section of the .adm or .admx files.

In the event that only a Teacher or a Student, but not both, was installed with Password Secure mode, the Student will not be accessible by the Teacher nor the Tech Console. This will be indicated by a Security Locked Out icon on the Student thumbnail. You can verify if this is the case by checking the version number on the Students. If you hover with your mouse over the icon in the Student system tray, it will show a version number something like:

v8.0.0.20Ls, v8.0.0.20Sd or v8.0.0.20Sds

The lowercase letters are the security identifiers, where s signifies Password Secure Mode and d signifies an Active Directory Secure Mode installation. The uppercase L and S are not actually security identifiers, rather they refer to a type of LanSchool install chosen. L is for the Light version and S indicates a Subscription license. The system is designed to lock out any devices that don’t match security models. The Students will need to be reinstalled with the correct security mode option(s) in order to correct the security lock out issue.

Note: If the tech’s password is compromised, it will be necessary to re-install Tech Console, Student, and if present, Teacher computers with a new password.


Installing Tech Console in Secure Mode | 19

Active Directory Secure ModeTech Console has the ability to leverage Windows Active Directory to ensure that only authorized techs can control students. This mode adds an extra level of security to prevent unauthorized consoles from being used. This mode will only function in an Active Directory Domain environment and on Windows 2000 or newer systems.

To fully configure this mode, you must have Domain Rights to create and populate a domain User Group.

Installation Steps:

1. After double clicking on either the TechConsole.msi or Student.msi file, continue through the install as previously described. To install the Active Directory Secure Mode version, check the box to Enable a security mode.

2. Select Active Directory Secure Mode.

3. Repeat these steps for both Tech or Student computers.

To install the Active Directory Secure mode on the Student using a script or Active Directory, refer to the section, “Scripting or Mass Deploying Students via MSI”.

When in this mode, a tech must be a member of the Domain User Group “LanSchool Tech Console Admins.” If the tech is not a member of that group, then Active Directory Secure students will not interact with that tech.

Creation of the “LanSchool Tech Console Admins” Domain User Group is done using the appropriate Windows Server 2003 or 2008 Active Directory tools. Once the group has been created, those same tools can be used to populate the group with the appropriate users.

While Password Secure Mode requires that students and techs both be installed with this option, Active Directory Mode is a bit different. If the Student has Active Directory Secure Mode enabled, then it will be Security Locked Out to any Tech who was not installed with the Active Directory Secure Mode enabled (or is not a member of the “LanSchool Teachers” or LanSchool Tech Console Admins” group). The restriction does not go the other way. An Active Directory Secured Tech (who is also a a member of the “LanSchool Tech Console Admins” group) will be able to control Students who do not have AD Secure Mode Enabled, without any restrictions.

Note: Active Directory Secure Mode is not available yet for Mac Tech Console or Students.


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Uninstalling Tech Console from a Windows Computer

To prevent the unauthorized removal of LanSchool software, the installation has been designed to be tamper resistant. Rather than using the customary Add or Remove Programs mechanism in Windows, LanSchool requires the presence of the original install package to uninstall the Tech Console or Student software.

The .msi install package acts like a toggle switch. To uninstall either program from a Windows computer, simply double-click the same file you used to first install the product, to run the installation program again. This will remove the software. If you were to select and run the file again, the software would be re-installed.

If the download package is no longer available, you should be able to download it again from your customer account in the Customer Portal. If you are not able to access your account, please contact Technical Support and they will provide you a copy of the .msi file. It will be necessary to know the exact version of the software installed. This can be found in the About box for the Tech Console or in User List view for Students. Alternately, it can be located locally by hovering with your mouse over the Tech Console or LanSchool icon in the system tray. The version will be something similar to 7.8.0.20 for this release.

If your Students were installed in Stealth mode, the LanSchool icon will not be displayed in the system tray. To determine if a Student is installed in that case, you should just see it listed in the Teacher console. If for some reason it is not listed, but installed, there are two ways to check. If you can access the Task Manager on the student (typically you can do this using Ctrl-Alt-Del), there will be an entry under Processes called student.exe and then you will know that LanSchool is installed.

If you are unable to access the Task Manager, there is tool available in the Utility folder called Student Diagnostics. If you run this program on a Student computer, the first available test is called “Test Local Installation”. This test will tell you if LanSchool is installed and running as well as the channel number, version and other pertinent data. Please contact Technical Support for assistance in using this tool.

Uninstalling Tech Console or a Student

1. If you are on a Tech Console machine, run TechConsole.msi. If you are on a student computer, run Student.msi.

2. You will be prompted to remove the software, click Next.

3. Click Remove.

4. Click Finish.

To silently uninstall Tech Console or the Student using a script, run Msiexec.exe with the following parameters:

Msiexec.exe /x “<path to TechConsole.msi>\TechConsle.msi” /qn

Msiexec.exe /x “<path to Student.msi>\Student.msi” /qn


Uninstalling Tech Console from a Windows Computer | 21

Uninstalling Report Server

The Report Server is a standard executable file that may be uninstalled by following the normal Windows process for that version of the operating system.

On Windows 7/8/10

1. From the Start menu, go to the Control Panel, and then click on Programs.

2. Select Programs and Features, and then click on Uninstall Program.

Follow the wizard through the uninstall steps and then reboot to complete the uninstall.

This process will remove the Report Server. The SQLite data file will remain in order to allow for a reinstall of the product. If no re-install is planned, you may safely delete any remaining files and folders.


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Installing Tech Console on a Mac

Tech Console has the ability to both monitor and manage students on Mac computers as a Tech Console as well as support for Students running on this platform. The installation process on Mac is similar to a Windows installation, but there are slight differences.

Manual InstallationAfter downloading the LanSchool installation file from the Customer Portal, unzip the file.

To install the software on a Tech Console computer follow these instructions:

1. Copy lanschool_tech_console.dmg from the Mac folder to the Mac Tech Console computer.

2. Double click on lanschool_tech_console.dmg.

3. Double click on lanschool_tech_console.pkg.

4. Follow the installation wizard to the Software License Agreement. After reading the terms of the license, select Continue and Agree.

5. dClick Continue. The installation location cannot be changed. LanSchool Tech Console must be installed on the system drive.

6. Click Install. The installer will ask for the administrator credentials on that computer. Type in the username and password and click OK.

7. After the installation is successful, click Close.

To install the software on a student computer follow these instructions:

1. Copy lanschool_student.dmg from the LanSchool Mac folder to the Mac student computer.

2. Double click on lanschool_student.dmg.

3. Double click on lanschool_student.pkg.

4. Follow the installation wizard to the Software License Agreement. After reading the terms of the license, select Continue and Agree.

5. Check the boxes to configure the Student as desired. For a list and explanation of the options available, please review the section “Scripting or Mass Deploying Students via MSI”.

6. Click Continue. The installation location cannot be changed. LanSchool Students must be installed on the system drive.

7. Click Install. The installer will ask for the administrator credentials on that computer. Type in the username and password and click OK.

8. After the installation is successful, click Close.

Note: The Mac student install will not work properly when installed from a user account with File Vault turned on. This is an Apple bug that displays “Insert the <username> disk”.


Installing Tech Console on a Mac | 23

Automated InstallationThe lanschool_student.pkg can be customized and installed through a desktop management application.

To customize this package complete the following steps:

1. Double click on lanschool_student.dmg.

2. Double click on “Create a custom package”.

3. Follow the installation wizard and select the appropriate options.

4. Name and save the package.

This will create a custom package that can be installed with the selected settings.


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Uninstalling Tech Console on a Mac

To prevent the unauthorized removal of LanSchool software, the installation has been designed to be tamper resistant. To accomplish this, LanSchool requires the presence of the original install package to uninstall the software, which acts like a toggle switch. Simply select the file to run the same installation program again that you used to install the product. This will remove the software. If you were to select and run it again, the software would be re-installed.

If the download package is no longer available, you should be able to download it again from your customer account in the Customer Portal. If you are not able to access your account, please contact Technical Support and they will provide a copy of the file. It will be necessary to know the exact version of the software installed. This can be found in the About box of the Tech Console. To find the version for Students look in the User List or use your mouse to hover over the LanSchool icon in the system tray on the Student machine. The version will be something similar to 7.8.0.20.

1. If you are on a teacher computer, run lanschool_tech_console.dmg.

2. If you are on a student computer, run lanschool_student.dmg.

3. Click on Uninstall.

4. Click Yes, Uninstall.

5. Type in an administrative username and password.

6. Click OK.


Updating Tech Console and User Machines | 25

Updating Tech Console and User Machines

After the initial installation of Tech Console and the Students, and the discovery of those computers in the console, these installations may be updated or re-configured with different settings.

Updating the Tech Console To update Tech Console with a new product version, simply run the new installation file. It will automatically update the Tech Console files to the new version without the need to uninstall the old version. For those environments where LanSchool Classroom Management software was previously installed, it is very important to update all Teacher and Student software to this 7.8 version of Tech Console in order to assure proper functionality.

Update LanSchool on Selected UsersLanSchool strives to quickly address any defect or issue found and reported by our customers through frequent maintenance releases. In addition, significant new functionality is added in product releases like this one. Once a version of LanSchool Student or Teacher is installed on a device, from that point on it is possible to deploy new versions from one central “administrative” view of the Tech Console. LanSchool Teacher software is available when the LanSchool v8.0 Classroom Management solution is also installed in the same environment.

You may select an individual user from the User List, or multi-select a group of users to remotely update from the currently installed version to the latest release. To accomplish this, simply copy the pertinent installation files from the directory where the product update was downloaded to the location where the Tech Console is installed.

Remote Update is also effective in cases where you would like to change the Advanced Settings on the Student or Teacher, perhaps changing them from Stealth mode to having a visible icon in the tray or just allowing Students to change their channels. You may select any of the settings you wish to now take precedence on the Student, and they are quickly reconfigured.

Please note that is strongly recommended that the version of the Student and Teacher software always matches the version of the Tech Console installed.

Note: If you are using Deep Freeze or similar “lock-down” software on the Student computers, you will have to disable or “thaw” it during this update procedure to allow the new software to be installed onto the student computers.

User Installation Files

From the product download location, copy the appropriate Student or Teacher files and place them in the location where the Tech Console was installed. Remote Update is one of the features shared with the LanSchool Teacher console, so if LanSchool v8.0 Classroom Management is also installed in your environment, you can use this feature to install any of the students that product supports like Vernier LabQuest, though other unique Tech Console features like Inventory or Software Install are not available for those platforms. You can also remotely update Teachers too, though that aspect of the feature is not supported in LanSchool v8.0 Remote Update.

The specific user files supported by Remote Update from Tech Console are:


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• For Windows Students deployed from a Windows Tech Console: student.msi

• For Windows Students deployed from a Mac Tech Console: pcupdate.zip and student.msi

• For Mac Students deployed from a Windows Tech Console: mupdate.zip

• For Mac Students deployed from a Mac Tech Console: mupdate.zip

• For Vernier LabQuest Students deployed from either Teacher: student-LabQuest.lqa

• For Windows Teachers deployed from a Windows Tech Console: teacher.msi

• For Mac Teachers deployed from a Windows Tech Console: mtupdate.msi

• For Windows Teachers deployed from a Mac Tech Console:pcupdate.msi and teacher.msi

• For Mac Teachers deployed from a Mac Tech Console: mtupdate.zip

Note: The Remote Update feature will prompt you for the correct file if a user is selected from the User List and the appropriate package is not found in the location where Tech Console was installed. Simply close the message, find the appropriate file, copy it back to the Tech Console installation folder and re-select the menu item Updating LanSchool on Selected Users.

Updating LanSchool on Selected Users

1. Begin by installing the latest build of Tech Console onto the Tech Console machine you wish to deploy from (see the “Updating the Tech Console” section above for more information).

2. Copy the appropriate package(s) from the list above for the user machines you plan to update or reconfigure to the directory location where Tech Console was installed.

3. In the Tech Console, select the users whom you would like to update or reconfigure.

4. Click Manage and then the Update LanSchool on Selected Users menu option.

5. Provide the credentials for the Users selected. The entire group of Users must be accessible with the same Administrative credentials. If necessary, reselect a smaller subsets of users that share the same login information. If you continue with the initial group of users selected, the remote install will fail, though you will receive a list of machines that failed due to incorrect credentials.

This process will take a few seconds for every student selected. When it is done, you may need to press the View, then Refresh menu item to see the newly installed version on the Student or Teacher computers.

When deploying LanSchool Students through Update LanSchool on Selected Students menu, the settings that are pushed out to the Student are the same as the Advanced Options set during the Teacher install.

Note: This method will only work if there already exists a v6.5 or newer Student or Teacher running on the computer. This method cannot be used to upgrade a v6.2 student to v8.0 student. Upgrading from v6.2 to v8.0 requires a reinstall of the software on the local device.


Configuring Tech Console Preferences | 27

Configuring Tech Console Preferences

LanSchool is easy to configure. All preferences are controlled by one dialog with seven tabs. Most preferences are controlled by making a change to these settings on the Teacher computer.

The available configuration tabs are:

• Tech

• User

• Network

• Security

Tech PreferencesThe Tech tab lets you configure the following preferences:

Blank Screens Message

This option allows tech administrators to specify the text to display on the user’s screens when they are blanked. Enter the text message into the drop down list and select Apply. The last 10 messages are saved so they can be quickly selected when blanking screens, and quickly cycle through any previously created messages. These messages can be seen from the Blank Screen button on the console toolbar. You may view, select or delete message from that button.

System Tray Notification

This option allows teachers to show or hide the LanSchool icon in the system tray when the console is minimized.

User PreferencesThe Student tab lets you configure the following preferences:

Remote Control

Disable Keyboard and Mouse

This option allows the teacher to “lock-out” the user’s inputs while the Tech is Remotely Controlling a their computer.

Color Reduction

Limits the number of colors and suppresses the background image used by the Tech during Remote Control. This both improves performance and lowers network bandwidth requirement.

User Thumbnails

Show Current Application Icon On Thumbnails

When in the thumbnail view, this option will show an icon in the upper left hand corner that represents the current application that the user is running.

Show Last Visited Website Icon On Thumbnails


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When in the thumbnail view, this option will show an icon in the upper right hand corner that represents the website that the user last visited.

Show Student Name (from Directory) when available

Shows the student directory name below the thumbnail if it is available.

Note: Both the user name and the machine name are automatically shown on medium to large thumbnails. You may choose either single option to be shown on small thumbnails.

Student Folder

This option lets you specify the path of the LanSchool folder on student computers. This can be on the local hard drive or on a network drive.

NetworkThe Network tab lets you configure the following preferences:

Data Transmission

In order for the Tech Console to quickly discover available Student machines and add them to the list in the console, one of the network broadcast methods described below is used. You can modify this selection in the Manage menu by selecting the Preferences item and then clicking on the Network tab in that dialog.

The User List is a dynamic view that is automatically generated whenever the Tech Console machine first runs, or when the list is refreshed by selecting the Refresh item from the View menu. You can also use either the F5 function key on Windows or the command-r on a Mac. Choosing a different broadcast method in the Network tab will also result in the list being refreshed.

IP broadcast is the default method used, and it is best for a classroom or lab environment where all the machines are typically stationary, on the same subnet, and wired to the network via Ethernet cables. In a mixed wired and wireless network or where machines are distributed or mobile, such as in a 1:1 environment, Multicast is the preferred method.

• IP-Broadcast: An IP packet sent from the source (the Tech Console) that is only delivered to clients (Student machines) on the same local area network as the source.

• IP-Multicast: An IP packet delivered to a group of destination computers simultaneously in a single transmission from the source (a Tech Console machine) creating copies automatically in other network elements, such as routers or switches. Multicast uses network infrastructure efficiently by requiring the source to send a packet only once, even if it needs to be delivered to a large number of receivers (Student machines). The nodes in the network take care of replicating the packet to reach multiple receivers only when necessary.

• IP-Directed Broadcast: An IP packet whose destination address is a valid broadcast address for some IP subnet, but which originates from a node (the Tech Console) that is not itself part of that destination subnet (other Student machines). If the “no ip directed-broadcast” command has been configured for your router, directed broadcasts destined for the subnet to which that interface is attached will be dropped, rather than being broadcast.



Note: Some additional configuration of the Routers/Switches may be needed to enable Multicast and/or Directed Broadcasts on your network. Consult your hardware guide for your switches/routers to be sure. For more information regarding these options, refer to the section “Tech Console Network Configuration.”

Multiple Network Adapters

Specify Network Interface Card

Some computers actually have more than one Network Interface card (NIC) and/or multiple IP addresses (i.e. a router). Many times these may be virtual or wireless network adapters.

LanSchool will always use the “first” NIC that responds, but that is not always the desired NIC or network. You can use this checkbox to specify which NIC you prefer to use.

If your Tech Console computer has multiple real or virtual network adapters, specify the adapter that should be used from the drop-down box.

Tech Channel

Administrator Channel

Channel “0” (zero) is the administrator channel and has the ability to monitor all assigned channels and see all Student machines that have been installed.

Use Multiple Channels

This feature allows the teacher to “group” any of the 16,000 channels. Each channel must be separated by a comma. For example: 1,3,4 will configure the teacher console to be able to monitor all students on channels 1, 3 and 4 at the same time.

SecurityThe Security tab lets you configure the settings that define a “Healthy computer” in your environment. Each user machine is compared to these settings and if the setting on the user machine matches this definition, then the machine is determined to be “healthy” and a green shield will be displayed in the User List. If even one category doesn’t match this definition, then the shield will turn red.

For example, if you were to check every box in the Security Preferences tab, all machines would always be displayed as healthy as every possible choice would be covered, i.e. Anti-Virus protection could be present or it could be absent, but that case would be true for every machine. Alternately, if you cleared every setting in this dialog, all user machines would always be displayed “unhealthy” or “At Risk” with red shields in the User List. This is because no machine could both have and not have Virus Protection at the same time.

The Security definition is global and apply to all machines, or in other words they can’t be configured on a per device basis. The categories included in the definition have slightly different nuances on Windows versus Mac user machines, but they are mostly the same in the context of the particular Operating System.

Windows/Personal Firewall

Possible settings are:

On

Off


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You may select either or both options based on your environment. Setting this to On means that Tech Console will check to determine whether the firewall provided by the Operating System is present and turned on. If so, this setting will pass the “healthy” checklist.

This check does not include the ability to understand third-party firewall applications. If you use a product outside of the one provided by the Windows or Mac operating systems, then you may want to check both On and Off so that this category is fundamentally always healthy because you are managing that aspect of security independently.

Operating System Updates


Automatic (Download and Install)

Download (Don’t Install)

Notify Only

Disabled

You may select any individual setting, a combination of two or more, or all four settings if this is not a setting you care to have impact your definition of a Healthy computer.

Virus Protection


On

Off

You may select either or both options based on your environment. Setting this to On means that Tech Console will check to determine whether the Operating System reports that Anti-Virus protection is available and running on the machine.

Malware/Spyware


On

Off

You may select either or both options based on your environment. Setting this to On means that Tech Console will check to determine whether the Operating System reports that Malware/Spyware protection is available and running on the machine.

Internet Security Settings


Phishing Filter On

Phishing Filter Off

You may select either or both options based on your environment. Setting this to On means that Tech Console will check to determine whether the Operating System reports that Phishing Filter protection is available and running on the default browser installed on that machine.



User Account Control


Always notify when I make changes, or programs make changes

Notify when programs make changes (Default)

Notify when programs make changes (don’t dim screen)

Never notify when I make changes, or programs make changes

User Account Control (UAC) is a uniquely Windows concept that is not present on Macs or Operating System versions before Vista. As such, those platforms do not consider this setting in the determination of health. For Vista and Windows 7 user machines, select the appropriate combination of options based on your environment. Tech Console will compare the setting here to the choice made on the local user’s machine, and if they match exactly, then this setting will contribute positively to the “healthy” definition.


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Tech Console Security Monitoring

With a tool as powerful as LanSchool, there's always a possibility for misuse. A student may be tempted to find an unauthorized copy and load the Teacher software to disrupt a class.

There are three ways to deal with possible misuse.

1. Set school policies around appropriate behavior, monitor and enforce the policy.

2. Install Tech Console in Active Directory Secure Mode which requires techs to belong to a domain group called “LanSchool Tech Console Admins” in order to manage student computers. (Recommended method)

3. Install Tech Console in Password Secure Mode, which requires a password on both the Tech and Student machines before access is allowed.

Security Monitor

Security Monitor is also available in the Utilities folder from the LanSchool download folder. This application runs on any PC and will capture a log of LanSchool activity, including the installation or uninstall of the LanSchool program.

With this utility, many schools have quickly been able to pinpoint students who are abusing the “appropriate use policy” of their classroom. There is a Tech Console Utilities.pdf file in the same folder which describes this utility in detail.

Teachers can also access the Security Monitoring data by clicking View then Status Window. As soon as teachers perform actions you will see the security messages.


Tech Console in a NAL environment | 33

Tech Console in a NAL environment

NAL (NetWare Application Launcher) is part of the Novell ZEN Works package. NAL can be used to control the Student desktop, giving students access to only administrator-approved applications. In the most restrictive mode (and perhaps most useful mode for schools), ONLY the applications specified can be run.

To install Tech Console in a NAL environment, deploy the Student programs using the supplied Windows .msi files.


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Wake-On-LAN Support

Wake-On-LAN (WOL) technology can be used to remotely “power-on” users computers. However, the user’s computers must be configured to enable WOL. The steps needed to do this vary with every computer model. Generally, the computer needs special hardware to support this and there is a BIOS switch which needs to be enabled. It is best to consult with your computer supplier to determine the actual steps needed.

In the Utilities folder of the Tech Console product download, there is a tool, WakeUp.exe, which can test compliance of WOL.

This utility will send a WOL “Wake Up” signal to a specified target computer. To use this utility, you will need two computers: the target computer and a console computer. Both will need to belong to the same IP subnet. You will have to determine the Physical MAC Address of the target computer.

On Windows machines, you can run the IPCONFIG /ALL command from a command prompt.

Once you have the Physical MAC address of the target computer, shut down that computer and from a command prompt on the other (console) computer you can run the WakeUp.exe utility. This will send the WOL Wake Up packet to the target computer.

If WOL is properly configured on the target computer, it will then power-on. If not, you will have to check with the hardware manufacturer to see what additional steps need to be taken. If WOL is not properly configured on a student computer, the Tech Console computer will NOT be able to perform a WOL Wake-Up on that computer.

Note: Apple's version of Wake-On-LAN will only wake a Mac from sleep, not power on a Mac that is off.


802.11 Wireless Support | 35

802.11 Wireless Support

Tech Console includes a wireless protocol that is automatically selected when the Tech Console computer senses that it is communicating over a wireless network. This protocol significantly increases the performance of LanSchool on wireless networks.

Special Hardware Requirements1. Please make sure that all computers are using the latest NIC (Network Interface Connector)

drivers available from the NIC vendor. The “world of wireless” is similar to the LAN environment of a decade ago. Wireless network drivers are being updated and improved frequently.

2. Enterprise Class Access points are recommended. There are two basic types of Access Points: Residential and Enterprise. The easiest way to differentiate is with the price.

• A “Residential” Access Point will generally sell for around $100 (i.e. LinkSys, DLink, Belkin, etc...). They work fine in a home environment where several computers will be sharing an Internet link and perhaps a printer.

• The “Enterprise” Access Point is designed to truly support 50 or more clients at the same time. They generally sell for around $300. Unless you really have less than five student computers, you want an “Industrial” class Access Point. (Our favorite is the Meru, but similar products are produced by HP, Dell, Cisco (NOT the LinkSys division), IBM, etc…) This will benefit not only LanSchool, but general student computing as well.

3. Turn off Power Save on the student computer’s NICs. In our testing we’ve found that LanSchool performance is improved as well as the battery life of the computer.

Installation

It is assumed that all wireless computers are associated to the same Access Point. Other than this, there are no other special installation concerns. Simply run the installation programs on the student computers, as specified earlier in this installation guide.

Performance

The performance interaction of Remote Controlling Student computers will not be as good over a wireless network when compared to the performance over a wired network. There is no way to overcome this.

A wired network can send broadcast and multicast data at 100Mbits per second. An 802.11 wireless network generally sends broadcast and multicast data at 1MBit per second (a mere 1% of the wired speed).

In addition to the drastic bandwidth reduction of wireless networks, the Access Point architecture of 802.11 will quite often add significant propagation delays to broadcast and multicast data. This is due to the Power Save architecture of the 802.11 world.

However, the LanSchool products have been optimized to have the least possible network bandwidth impact possible. Even complex screens should appear within three seconds. Simple screen changes should appear almost immediately.


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Wireless Performance Tweaks

If you optionally wish to improve performance, you can attempt to configure your Access Point (AP). Since this differs from vendor to vendor, we can only give general guidelines. You'll have to consult your Access Point's manual to see how to actually make the change on your particular Access Point.

1. Drop the Beacon Interval as low as possible. Generally, this can go down to 50ms.

2. Set the DTIM to ZERO. This allows broadcast and multicast packets to be sent after EVERY beacon packet.

3. Increase the Broadcast or Multicast speed. Not all AP's allow this to be set.


Additional Utilities | 37

Additional Utilities

DirBCastAddr.exe

When configuring the Tech Console preferences, the Network tab allows for up to 3 different “IP-Directed Broadcast” addresses. These are special addresses which (when properly formed) will traverse your network as a single directed UDP packet until the destination subnet is reached. Upon reaching the destination subnet, the router will then convert the packet into a standard UDP-Broadcast packet.

For this to function, the routers must be configured to forward IP-Directed Broadcast packets (sometimes routers refer to these as “UDP Directed Broadcasts”) and the address of these packets must be properly formed. This utility will help with the later. You must enter the IP address of any student machine on the target subnet along with the subnet mask for that subnet. After both addresses have been entered, click on the “Calculate” button. Copy the resulting address into one of the three Subnet entries in the Data Transmission area of the Network tab of the Tech Console Preferences dialog.

SecurityMonitor.exe

If you suspect a student has a rogue copy of LanSchool, you can quickly identify that student with the LanSchool Security Monitor. The LanSchool Security Monitor will capture all traffic and optionally save the data out to a log file. Click the Options button, select the logging tab and type in a filename.

Clicking on the options button also allows you to filter by Teacher and by message. This new filter capability allows you to sift through all of the messages to just find the inappropriate use. If you find a rogue Teacher console is in use, you can show Real-time Alerts by selecting that computer. At that point, all traffic from that computer is flagged with a warning sign.

StudentDiagnostics.exe

This is a diagnostic utility used by LanSchool Technical Support personnel. It is generally used to detect network connectivity issues involving firewalls and routers.

WakeUp.exe

The LanSchool Tech console can issue a Wake-On-Lan packet to wake up specified Student computers. For this to work, the Student computers must be configured in their BIOS to allow for a remote wakeup. Unfortunately, all computer manufacturers seem to set these BIOS settings in a different way. This utility is used to verify that a particular machine has been setup properly. It will take the MAC address of the target computer as a command-line option. For example, if the MAC address of a target student machine were 00-22-64-AD-9C-AC, you could use WakeUp.exe to “wake-up” that machine with the following command line: WakeUp.exe 00-22-64-AD-9C-AC [Enter].


LanSchool Tech Console Install Guide · Technical Support |9 LanSchool Tech Console Install Guide...

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